Prince Mononoke
by Lady of the Spirit
Summary: San was the princess of the Emishi tribe, in an arranged marriage with someone she didn't love, and wanted to see what life was like outside of her valley. But then she was cursed by a Demon, forced to leave her village, and is thrown into a battle between humanity and the Gods of the forest. As San tries to stop the killing, she meets a human boy leading the Wolf Gods - Ashitaka.
1. Chapter 1: The Demon

_In ancient times, the land lay covered in forests, where, from ages long past, dwelt the Spirits of the Gods._

_Back then, Man and Beast lived in harmony, but as time went by, most of the great forests were destroyed._

_Those that remained were guarded by gigantic beasts, who owed their allegiances to the Great Forest Spirit,_

_For those were the days of Gods..._

…_and of Demons._

Something evil was in the forest. As it walked, the grass, tree's, and every plant it touch shriveled up, turned brown, and died. It didn't care that it was killing everything. He wanted to destroy them. He wanted these things to die, just like his own forest had died.

It _needed_ to kill humans. It had been the humans that had turned him to this writhing, horrible pile of hate. Its goal was now to destroy the humans in the village he was getting close too- destroy them, or turn them into what he was.

What he was, was Hate. He was the living definition of Hatred.

**Prince Mononoke**

Somewhere else, walking through the same forest, was a young girl. Her face was lit up by the sun that passed through the trees and greenery all around her, revealing the features of a girl reaching her late teen years. She had long sandy brown hair, reaching her chest, which was partially pulled back into a topknot at the back of her head. If you had caught her with her hair down, her hair would have reached her waist. Her eyes were a dark shade of brown, but if you looked at them from a certain angle, they would appear dark blue or gray. She wore a short, dark blue tunic that reached high above her knees. Tied around her waist was a dark red sash, with a sword in a scabbard attached to it. She was barefoot and wearing blue fabric wrappings around her legs. Wrapped round her arms from her wrists up to her elbows were white bandages. Clutched tightly in one hand was a bow. Hanging over her shoulder was a quiver full of arrows. Her ears were pierced, and held large white disk-shaped earrings that gleamed in the sunlight. Around her head was a black circlet, and wrapped around both of her biceps were matching armbands, all of them made out of leather. The headband held a small white stone in the center of the forehead, and the armbands held matching stones as well.

This was San, the heroine of our story.

San was the princess of the Emishi Clan, a Tribe of people that had been brutally slaughtered to near extinction five hundred years ago. Now they lived far to the east, hidden carefully from any outsiders or invaders.

San smoothed a piece of hair out of her eyes. She was returning to the village from her inspection of the border - the border that hid the Emishi from anybody wishing to do them harm. The only known entrance to the village was hidden behind a waterfall inside a deep canyon. The only people who knew about the entrance were people of the Emishi, or friends to the Emishi people - and, given the fact that nobody knew that the Emishi had survived the massacre five centuries ago, the Clan didn't have too many friends.

There was an inspection of the border every other day. That day it was San's turn. The reason for the inspection was so that, should anybody not meaning well should come close to the entrance of the village, the person looking over the entrance that day would be able to either fight off the person, or warn the village of the attackers.

There hadn't been any invaders that day. _What do they expect?_ San silently asked herself. There hadn't been any visitors to the village in years - the last person to come to the village had been Master Tanda, and that was nearly five years ago, when San had been thirteen. Still, even if there hadn't been any visitors, San couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong - very wrong. She hadn't heard any birds or animals, and she hadn't seen any either. Usually, she saw several squirrels, some of which came close enough so that she could touch them, and heard hundreds of birds. But that day, the forest was dead silent. It was unnerving.

She held up a hand to block out the sun as she passed by the walls that made up the border between the forest and the village. There was a soft snorting sound, and when San turned toward the noise, she saw her red elk, Yakuul trotting toward her.

"I thought I told you to stay with Kaya." San said sternly, though she couldn't help but smile as Yakuul nudged her cheek gently with his nose. After rubbing his muzzle with the hand that wasn't holding onto her bow, she took hold of his reins and began leading him back towards the village.

"San!"

Again, San turned toward the source of the noise. This time she saw Kaya, her little sister, and her two friends, Hana and Mei, racing towards her. They all were dressed the same as San, the only differences being that the three of them all had chin-length dark brown hair, wore hats to protect them from the sun, and held baskets (no doubt filled with herbs for the Wise Woman of the village) instead of bows in their hands.

"You found him!" Hana said, sounding relieved. She was obviously talking about Yakuul, given the fact that San had left him in the younger girls care. "He wandered off a bit before we had finished our gathering - Mei was terrified that we would have to be the ones to tell you he had disappeared!"

"I was not!" Mei said instantly, looking irritated.

"Was there anybody at the border?" Kaya asked, purposely changing the subject.

"No." San shifted her quiver back into a comfortable position on her shoulder. "There never is."

"Well, it's better to be safe rather than sorry, isn't it?" Mei pointed out.

"I suppose so." San sighed, tilting her head back and letting her earrings flash in the sunlight at the movement. "Let's go, it's time to head back to the village."

The girls nodded, and the group of five (including Yakuul) set off across the grassy field. After a few minutes of walking, they passed a tall watchtower, a roof covering the top to protect the watcher of the day from the sun. San leaned against one of the wooden posts, calling up to the top. "Ji-San!"

An old man peered over the railing of the watchtower, looking down at the girls and the elk. "San! Did you see anything at the border?" Ji-San called back down.

"No, there was nothing!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Why?" San asked, frowning slightly.

Ji-San didn't answer at first, but then he yelled, "The Mountains are strange. Just hurry back to the village, will you?"

"We will!" Kaya yelled up to the old man. "San, let's go." She added in a mutter to her sister, who looked like she wanted to go up there and demand to know what was wrong with the forest right that second. Kaya seized the older girl by her arm and began to gently pull her along, until she was sure that San wouldn't try to demand an answer from Ji-San.

When they were a distance away from the watchtower, but still had it in view, Mei was the first to speak up. "The forest did seem a bit odd when we were gathering herbs."

Hana nodded in agreement. Kaya gave a small "hmm" in thought. San opened her mouth and was about to say something, when she was cut off by -

"San! Girls!"

San's face instantly became emotionless when she heard a male's voice. Kaya gave her a quick side-glance, before turning her attention to the source of the voice. "Chagum!" She yelled, raising her hand in a greeting.

Racing towards them, making his way through the pathway on his own red elk, was Chagum, San's fiancée. There was no doubt that he was a handsome man, but San wasn't fond of him in the slightest. The marriage had been arranged between his parents before San's parents had died ten years ago. San had no say in the marriage - which was to be expected, really, but she still hated it. Chagum wasn't smart or wise, nor was he that interesting a person. He was one of those people - that, unfortunately, seemed to be numerous these days - who divided the world into good and bad, and friends and enemies. San didn't like anyone who thought like that - she didn't hate them, she just had a very low tolerance for them.

And, unfortunately, as soon as she turned nineteen, she was going to be married to him.

"Good that I found you." Chagum commented, riding up to them and bringing his elk to a halt. "The Wise Woman says that everyone is to return to the village immediately."

"Ji-San said so too." Hana said.

"Ji-San?" Chagum's eyes quickly found San. "What did he say, San?"

"He said that the mountains were strange." San replied, though she wasn't looking at him. She was looking back, at the forest, her eyes narrowed, as if she was trying to see what was wrong with the forest. "And I couldn't hear any birds or animals on my way back from the border."

"Alright." Chagum nodded, still staring at San as though he thought she would look back at him and actually smile at him for once. She never did that. "I'll go and ask Ji-San what's wrong. You four, please hurry back!" And he set off, racing away on his elk, leaving behind the four girls and Yakuul.

"San, come on, let's go." Kaya murmured, nudging her sister gently. San didn't respond, but she gave a small nod and turned back around.

The rest of the walk back was completely silent. San kept glancing around, one hand clenching her bow tightly and the other hand switching between holding the hilt of her sword and touching the strap of her quiver. Kaya kept glancing over at San with a faintly worried expression. Hana and Mai tried several times to start a conversation, but it always fell flat, and they lapsed back into silence.

Suddenly, Yakuul came to a stop. The elk looked around, his ears twitching very faintly. San stopped walking as well, and turned around, her eyes narrowing. _Something's there… _She looked over her shoulder at the three other girls. "Can you three keep going? I'll stay here, you just keep walking."

Hana and Mai slowly nodded in agreement, though they looked a little worried, while Kaya cast one last worried look in her sister's direction before continuing to walk. San stayed where she was, keeping one hand on her bow and the other on Yakuul's horn, in case she needed to make a fast getaway.

Silence in the forest. Nothing was wrong.

But then…

San let out a gasp when suddenly a blur of red fur and blue clothing darted out of the forest. It was Chagum, and he was trying to get away from something.

Then, the trees around an area of the forest's edge turned brown and shriveled up, dying instantly. Suddenly, some kind of creature, looking more like a mass of tentacles with a pair of red glowing lights for eyes, burst forward from the forest. It crawled out of the forest on its four tentacle legs, chasing after Chagum, sprouting at least four more legs as it did. San, for her part, didn't scream, but her eyes widened even more.

_It's a Demon! _

The monster suddenly started slowing before It came to a complete stop. It turned to the left, then to the right. And, of course, It saw San. It looked like It jumped in surprise, and then started wildly scrambling across the ground toward the Princess. San instinctively pulled an arrow from the quiver strapped to her back and nocked it into her bowstring, took aim, and fired. The arrow sliced through the air, before embedding itself into the ground a few feet away from the Demon. The projectile successfully caught the Demon off guard, and It halted Its charge momentarily.

"San!" Chagum yelled, taking notice of her. "Out of the way!" The boy was already circling back around, racing toward her. San ignored him, and instead seized Yakuul's antler and hoisted herself onto his back, and the elk began to break into a steady run. The Demon seemed to have recovered from Its shock, and now had begun to chase after San and Yakuul. San glanced over her shoulder briefly, and saw the Demon had no intent on stopping his rampage any time soon. Slowly, she held out her hand toward It, in a "stop" gesture, and began to speak, slowly but loudly. "My Lord of the Forest! Please, stop your rampage! Leave our village in peace!"

"San, what are you doing?" Chagum shouted, looking both shocked and angry at her.

San ignored him. Chagum was the kind of person who thought there was only one way to solve problems: with violence. She, however, always tried to settle things without bloodshed - unfortunately, that way of solving problems was almost impossible to do most of the time. "Chagum, where's Ji-San?" She prayed to the Gods that the honorary grandfather of the Emishi village hadn't been killed by the Demon monster. He had helped the Wise Woman raise her and Kaya when their parents had died.

"He's alive." And that was all Chagum had time to say before the Demon let out a roar and suddenly turned and started charging off in a different direction. When San turned and looked to where the Demon was now racing, she saw with horror that the monster was now heading directly towards Kaya and her friends, who had frozen in place upon seeing the monster.

"Chagum, you get Kaya and her friends out of here!" San ordered, already racing after the Demon and barely hearing Chagum start yelling at her from behind. She felt some of her fear disappear as Kaya and her friends began to run as fast as they could back towards the village. San managed to get Yakuul in front of the Demon, and began to speak to It again. "Go back! Please! Why do you attack our village? What have we done to you?" San screamed at it, trying not to show any fear. "Stop it! Leave us alone!"

The Demon continued charging at the three girls. To make matters worse, Mai suddenly tripped over a rock and fell flat on her face into the grass. "Get up!" Hana yelled, the two other girls skidding to a stop. As Hana tried to get Mai back to her feet, Kaya turned to face the demon and pulled out the sword hanging at her waist. She pointed it directly at the monster, a determined expression on her face.

"KAYA!" San yelled. "OUT OF THE WAY!" When Kaya made it clear she was not going to move until her friend was safe, San realized she had no choice. She drew an arrow and shot it directly at the Demon's red eye. It pierced deeply into the eye, and the Demon came to a halt, giving Chagum enough time to finally run out from behind the Demon, reach Kaya and her friends, leap off his elf, pick Mai up in his arms bridal style, and he and the girls ran back to the village as fast as they could.

San stayed behind, watching the Demon retreat into itself, forming a ball of wildly squirming bloody black and dark purple tentacles. Suddenly, several stalks of the snakes shot upwards, and it startled both San and Yakuul enough to cause San to send Yakuul running away. All of the stalks began to chase after her, although the Demon stayed in Its place.

Despite Yakuul's speed, one long arm of the Demons tentacles managed to catch up with the two and seized hold of San's right forearm. They clenched her arm firmly in their grasp, and she screamed in pain.

San ripped her arm away from the snakes, leaving only about a dozen still clinging to her arm. As soon as she was free, San doubled back and readied another arrow. She waited until she was close enough, before she let go of the string, and let the arrow soar.

The projectile hit the monster in Its already injured eye, making It squeal in pain again. Two more long, twisting and turning arms of squirming tentacles chased after her again, but this time San was wiser. She refused to let Yakuul slow down until the tentacles fell back.

When the tentacles stopped chasing them, San went back. She found the Demon, in Its true pitiful form. The tentacles had started sliding off the Demon, out of its injured eye even, revealing a huge orange-coloured boar underneath, nearly three times the size it was supposed to be. When the last of the tentacles tentacles had slid off and pooled at Its feet, the boar stood still.

For a moment, there was silence. Then the boar fell over with a loud _THUD._

It was dead.

San suddenly felt an intense burning feeling in her arm... the one the Demon had touched. She looked down, and immediately regretted doing so. Her face contorted with pain as the last of the tentacles melted off her skin, leaving behind utterly charred and burned bandages that she had just wrapped around her forearms this morning. San felt almost faint, and she slid sideways off Yakuul onto the ground on her side. She could hear the people in the village yelling, but she couldn't hear what they were saying. She suddenly heard her sister's voice, whispering to her. "San, are you alright?" Kaya managed to get San partially off the ground, so her sister was now on her knees, clutching her arm. Chagum had materialized by her side, and had one arm around her shoulders, and murmuring words of comfort into her ear. At least half or more of the men of the tribe had formed a circle around their eldest princess, all of them looking horrified.

"Don't touch it, Kaya." San ordered, sounding like she was in pain. The two girls started clawing at the ground, pulling up dirt to cover San's arm, and in the process ripped off the ruined bandages, revealing angry red coloured skin.

The Wise Woman rode on another man's back and approached the scene. She was ordering them to stay back, that it wasn't safe for them to get any closer to their princess. The man set the old lady down on her feet, and Chagum stood up.

"She's hurt!" He nearly yelled at the old woman.

The Wise Woman handed Chagum a jug, filled to the brim with holy water. "Pour this slowly over the wound." Kaya got back on her knees and started to pour the water over her sister's injury. The wound was so hot it turned the water to steam, and San sucked in a breath at the pain.

The Wise Woman then approached the dead boar. She bowed her head at Its body, and began speaking in soft tones, using the ancient Emishi language. It was said that only the God's still spoke this language. The Wise Woman had learned the language early on in her training as the village Oracle, and so spoke to the dead Boar in the Ancient tongue. Whether it was God or Demon, It deserved her respect. San watched, not understanding the language, but knowing that the Wise Woman was blessing the Demon into the next world.

The corpse suddenly started speaking. His voice was deep, and filled with hatred, and he spoke in the native Emishi language, so they could all understand him. _**You damned filthy humans… You will all feel my hate and suffer...**_

As It spoke its final words, blood started pouring out of Its mouth, and the Demon's skin and muscle melted of him, leaving only the huge skeleton alone in the large puddle of blood. The air filled with the smell of burning flesh, and bile rose to San's throat as she stared at her arm in horror.

_What have I gotten myself into this time?_

**Author's note: When referring to Nago, AKA the Demon, 'Demon' and 'It' had their first letters capitalized on purpose, because I can do that. Just saying so.**


	2. Chapter 2: Banishment

**Banishment**

**Disclaimer: Do. Not. Own. Only own my changes to the script and/or film. Everything else belongs to the incredible Miyazaki-San. Who, unfortunately, is retiring from movie-making. Did you hear the news? It's so sad… I just hope that his son continues his legacy.**

That night, a meeting was held in the village shrine.

Though most of the village was sleeping, a few stray villagers stayed awake, waiting silently in the courtyard for the news of their Princess's injury. These people all stared up from the courtyard to the side of the mountain towering above them, for built propped up against the mountain face was the village's shrine. It was tucked safely into a little nook just a little higher up than the tallest building in the Emishi village.

Inside the shrine, the wall attached to the mountainside was made up of the cliffside, which bulged into the room. Beneath the cliffside was a small red table, empty except for a single leafy branch cut from one of the trees near the village. Two lit lamps were set up, giving the room only a faint light.

About seven men, all of them members of the village council, were sitting against the wall, while the Wise Woman and San sat far apart, facing each other.

The Wise Woman had a white mat set out in front of her, covered in a variety of smooth, round stones, twigs, one or two animal bones, twigs, leaves, and a single red triangle drawn in the center of the mat. This is what she used to make her predictions.

San sat across from the old lady, kneeling with her hands in her lap, and her hair pulled into a loose braid hanging casually over her shoulder. Her injured right arm was wrapped in new bandages, hiding the damage the Demon had done to her, while she had removed the bandages from her left arm. San hid her emotions well, her expression not showing any fear, anger, or panic that she might have been feeling. Her eyes were steely, making it appear that she was ready for anything the Wise Woman would tell her.

The Wise Woman rolled a pebble onto the mat, and then began speaking. "Well, this is troublesome news." She murmured, watching the stones. "The stones have told me the God came from far to the west of our valley. He had a flame of hatred inside him, eventually driving him mad, destroying any goodness in his heart, and turning him into a Demon." The woman looked up from her readings and stared at the princess. "Princess San."

San straightened. "Yes?"

"Show all of us your right arm."

Something in San's eyes flickered, but it was gone before anyone could see it. Silently, she undid her bandages, thrusting out her arm as they fell off. Encircling San's arm was a long, jagged, black and purple-ish colored mark, with a color that looked like a combination of blood red, wine red, and deep purple. It looked almost like a burn, and it hurt like one too.

All of the men in the room gasped and stared at the mark. "What does it mean?" Ji-San asked the Wise Woman. The old woman looked up and smiled at the eighteen year old girl in front of her.

"My princess, are you prepared to learn what fate the stones have foretold you?"

San was silent for a moment. She had never liked the way the wise woman had said, 'what fate the stones have foretold.' Like none of them had a choice. Like their fates were decided by a couple of rocks. But out loud she heard herself say, "Yes."

The Wise Woman gave a small 'hmm' before saying anything. "The infection will take root in your soul, and spread throughout your entire body. It will cause you great pain, and eventually kill you." The Wise Woman had never felt the need for sugar coating her predictions.

San's teeth clenched as the Wise Woman said these words. Her face tightened, and she gave a sharp nod. Suddenly, Ji-San spoke out again, now looking worried for the princess. "Isn't there any way we could stop it?"

"The princess got that curse by saving our girls!" One man, who happened to be Mai's father, added.

"Can we really only sit here and wait for her to die?" Hana's own father said, staring at the floor with a bitter expression.

The Wise Woman couldn't help but smile at the men's concern for their princess. "You cannot alter your fate, my princess. No one can. However, you can rise to meet it if you choose." She reached into her pocket, and brought out a small iron ball, about the size of a walnut. "Take a look. This iron ball was found inside the boar's skeleton, right where his heart had been. It shattered his bones and destroyed him from the inside. This is what turned him into a Demon."

San drew back, her eyes narrowing. "Who could have possibly created something that could do that?" She looked down, clenching her fists. Her voice was beginning to rise. "Why would someone _want_ to do that? How-"

She was interrupted by the Wise Woman, who was still speaking very calmly, despite being rudely interrupted. "We cannot know who is doing this, my princess. We can only know that there is something ominous happening in the western lands. It's your fate to go there and see what you can see, with eyes unclouded by hate. You may even find a way to lift the curse. Do you understand?"

"Yes." San gave a sharp nod.

"Wait a moment!" Everyone in the room suddenly turned to the man who had spoken out. It was Chagum's father, Gakai. He wasn't often apart of the council meetings, due to the fact that the Wise Woman found that his eyes were clouded - clouded by what, she didn't say. "The Princess has been arranged to marry my son since the day she was born! How can you just-" Gakai quickly grew silent as all the men in the room turned to glare at him.

It was Ji-San who spoke out first. "Nobody wants the Princess to leave, Gakai. But if there's a chance that she can find a cure for her curse and live, then I would rather let her leave forever than sit here and watch her die."

San looked at the ground and closed her eyes. All of the men had turned their eyes back to her. She didn't want to see them staring at her with their sad, pitying eyes. If she saw them, it was possible that she would start crying.

A period of silence filled the room, before one of the elders, Yoshi, spoke in his tired, worn voice. He spoke of the Emishi's history. How they were the last. How it had been five centuries since the Emperor had brought the massacre upon them. How, while they still lived, their tribe's blood grew weaker every new generation. He sighed. "Sometimes I think the gods are _laughing_ at us. It seems only natural that the young woman who was fated to rule us now has to leave us forever."

San turned to the altar. She pulled out a small knife from her belt, and unsheathed it. She picked up her braid, put the knife's blade against it, and sliced through it. The braid came away from her hair, leaving the rest of her hair cut off at the nape of her neck in shorn, light brown tresses. She placed the braid down on the altar in front of her, bowed her head, and turned back to the Oracle. All of the men in the room had looked down, closing their eyes, not wanting to see their princess leave them forever.

"According to our rules, we may not see you off." The Wise Woman said quietly. "I wish you well."

San nodded, and turned around.

She left without looking back.

**-(o)-**

In the middle of the night, everyone was asleep. Except, of course, the people attending the council meeting. But even they were drifting off, trying to get the troubling events out of their mind as they lay in bed, trying not to think of what dangers could fall on their beloved Princess on her journey.

San, of course, could not just simply get into bed. She had to leave. She was completely silent as she pulled on her travelling clothes. Her underclothes consisted of a dark blue tunic with a kimono styled neckline, and a sash around her waist, both colored a slightly lighter shade of blue. The tunic itself went down a little past her knees, with slits up the sides to give San enough room to move around in. The white shirt she wore underneath her tunic had sleeves that reached her elbows, while the sleeves of the tunic were loose and only reached her biceps. Over this, she wore a slightly oversized white, almost kimono-like robe, over baggy white pants tucked into tall armour styled boots. To keep the robe in place was a dark blue sash tied tightly around her waist. When the elbow-length sleeves of her outer robe stopped, covering her arms (and more importantly, her curse mark) from the elbows down were long gauntlets, styled with the same labyrinth styled pattern as her armoured boots.

As she finished pulling on her travelling clothes, she pulled a white hood over her newly cut hair, and pulled a matching white mask on to cover her face from the eyes down. San shouldered her bow and her quiver of arrows, strapped her sword to her waist, and silently made her way to the stable, where she got Yakuul. She saddled him up as quickly as possible, before leading him towards the gate of the village. San had almost successfully left the village, before…

"San!" Kaya whispered, running over to her sister. San stopped Yakuul from going any further, and stared down at the girl.

"Kaya! What are you doing here?" San hissed.

"What's going on? Where are you going? Can you tell me what's happening?"

San glanced around for a moment, before she dismounted Yakuul. "Kaya, I have to leave." She said calmly, putting a hand on her sister's shoulder.

"But why? Why do you have to leave? Is it because of the wound? Is it serious?"

The elder girl closed her eyes and sighed. "It's not just a wound, Kaya. It's a curse. The Wise Woman says it will eventually kill me. So I'm going to find a cure, and try and stop anything like that Demon from being created ever again."

Kaya's eyes went wide, before she grabbed San's upper arms. "You can't leave! There has to be a cure here, somewhere!" She looked almost hysterical, tears beginning to build up in her eyes.

"It's too late. I've already cut my hair. I can't go back now." San's gaze flickered towards the village shrine. "I have to leave, now. And Kaya, you cannot tell anyone this. I've been banished, I'm as good as dead to the village now." San placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. After a few seconds, Kaya finally looked up, and San pulled of her hat and mask so Kaya could see her face. "You're the last princess of the Emishi people. You have to take my place. Be a good leader. Be the sort of leader our parents would want you to be, but also be the leader you want yourself to be."

Kaya nodded silently, the tears finally spilling down her cheeks. She suddenly darted forward, flinging her arms around her sisters waist.

The two princess of the Emishi exchanged one last hug, before San donned her hat and mask again and pulled herself onto Yakuul.

"Don't you dare die, San." Kaya said forcefully.

San smiled. "I will always think of you, Kaya."

And with those final words, Princess San rode away on her elk, never to return to the Emishi village again.

**The end of the chapter. **


	3. Chapter 3: Demon Strength

**Demon Strength**

**Originally, this was supposed to be both the massacre and Jigo's introduction. But I thought - I should split them up. So now, Jigo is coming in next chapter. **

**Went back to chapter one, took out San's markings. Left the other accessories that she had in the original movie (minus the crystal dagger), but just took out the markings, because it doesn't really make sense for her to have them. I mean, the Wise Woman has earrings like she does, but nobody has markings… so why should she? **

**Okay? So no markings. **

**I'm a little surprised that this story already has:**

**Seventeen reviews.**

**Fifteen favourites. **

**And fourteen followers. **

**The story wasn't as popular as that when I first started writing it a year ago. I guess my new writing skills have paid off. **

**Anyway -**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Princess Mononoke or any characters thereof. Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki are the proud owners of the fantastic film, while I am just a High School student and am writing this for my own amusement and because I'm shocked that no one else had come up with the idea before me. I only own any possible changes I make to the plot of this movie, the dialogue of this movie, and/or any other things that I can't think of right now. **

**By the way, I'm just going to tell you this now: since San is wearing those bulky travelling clothes, and she fights like a warrior, it's only natural other people would mistake her for a man. At least, until they saw her face or heard her speak. So, yep.**

San rode for days. She rode until she was miles and miles away from the Emishi Village. She rode through vast plains, along mountainsides, passed deep valleys, and crossed rushing rivers. Even night fell, she and Yakuul would continue riding until San felt like she would pass out from exhaustion, and only then would she finally admit defeat and find a place wherever they were - whether it be a forest, a mountainside, or a village (though she stayed out of the villages for the most part on her journey) - for the girl and her elk to sleep for the night. But they were both awake again as soon as the sun rose, and they would begin their journey again.

It wasn't until a week or two after her banishment that, as San rode down a grassy mountainside, she spotted a cloud of smoke rising in the distance. She followed a pathway along the mountain, until she reached the place where the smoke was coming from. It was a town, a simple farming village, with wide rice fields spread out across the land.

Yakuul emerged from a glade of trees that had previously hidden San from view. Now the girl could see what was happening better.

There appeared to be some sort of skirmish going on. Men dressed in armour were running around, carrying long spears and shouting things to one another. There seemed to be some sort of battle going on between the men in armour - Samurai, San realized after a moment - and the normal townspeople of the village.

_Is it a battle?_ San wondered to herself, watching over the spectacle. She turned her head slightly, and was horrified to see several villagers, women and children and farmers, all of them carrying their belongings in bags strapped across their backs, screaming in terror as they tried to get away from groups of samurai chasing them. _No… it's a massacre._ Her dark eyes narrowed as she saw a man pull out a sword, ready to defend himself from an oncoming samurai. Her eyes narrowed further as the samurai carelessly chopped off the man's arm, still holding onto the sword, and stabbed the farmer with his spear. "Bastards." She hissed under her breath, glaring at the murderers. _How dare they… _The fingers on her right hand twitched slightly, clenching her bow tighter.

"Look! On the hill!"

San's head whipped around as she heard a man's voice yelling. It appeared that the samurai had finally spotted her. A small group of them had formed at the base of the hill San was currently standing at the top of. "It's a warrior!"

"I'll get a good prize for this!" Another samurai yelled, pulling the string of his bow back before sending an arrow flying straight toward San. Without a second thought, the white-clad girl dug her heels into Yakuul's side, and the elk took off running along the pathway. Arrows flew after her, but none managed to hit their targets. San pulled an arrow out of her quiver and set it into her bow, ready to shoot if she needed to. She spotted a group of villagers running across the pathway far ahead of her, being chased by three or four soldiers. A woman tripped, and while she scrambled unsuccessfully to get back on her feet, a samurai standing right behind her brought his sword down on the pack strapped to the woman's back, splitting it open. The man raised his sword for a second time, ready to kill the woman.

"STOP IT!" San screamed, unable to keep silent for any longer. _How dare they! How dare they?! _She raised her bow, pointing it directly at the samurai soldier. She was just about to shoot, when suddenly, the place on her arm where the curse was began to writhe and bulge and pulse furiously, almost like the tentacles of the Demon had come back. In her surprise, San let go of the bow's string, and the arrow went flying through the air at unnatural speed.

The arrow hit its intended target - and much more. Right as the samurai had been about to bring his sword down, the arrow had hit the hilt of the man's sword. But, with unnatural strength, the force of the arrow striking its target ripped the samurai's arms off from the elbow and pinned both the sword and the soldiers arms - still grasping the hilt of the sword - against the side of a tree.

The now armless soldier gaped at the sight of his arms detached from his body for a moment while the woman managed to get back on her feet and run away. San and Yakuul then rode right past the samurai, knocking him backwards onto the ground.

San clutched her right arm, watching in horror as it continued to writhe and squirm furiously, as if it had a mind of its own. She bit down on her teeth, working hard to force back the scream of panic that was beginning to build up inside of her. _My arm! _The mark of the curse was burning like fire, almost as much as it had been when she had first been touched by the Demon. _What the hell?! _

San turned her head to the right, and spotted two archers chasing her on horseback from across a rice field. San instantly notched an arrow into her bow and aimed at the archers. "You!" She yelled at them, her eyes blazing. "BASTARDS!" All San could think of was the destroyed village, and the killings she had just witnessed. Just how many innocent people had been slaughtered by these - these _murderer's? _Just the thought made her arm writhe even more.

An arrow sent from one of the mounted archers flew toward her. San dodged it, and released her own arrow. It sailed toward the man who had shot the first arrow, and it sliced through the archers neck, decapitating the samurai. The soldiers instantly stopped attacking the banished princess, valuing their own lives too much to continue. And San rode off, quickly disappearing into the forest again.

Behind him, the archer who had first started following San stopped his charge. He looked behind him, and saw his now headless comrade fall off his horse, blood beginning to stain the dead man's armor. The soldier looked at where the warrior had disappeared, and muttered, "_A demon."_

**-(o)-**

Meanwhile, San had rode into the forest as far as she could before she ordered Yakuul to stop. She felt almost completely drained of energy, and they both needed to rest. They both managed to find a small forest waterfall, tumbling over large boulders before forming into a small river.

While Yakuul drank from the river, San pulled off her gauntlets and baggy white shirt, revealing the tunic underneath. Without a word, she traced her fingers over her curse mark, inspecting it carefully. San moved her arm underneath the waterfall, watching as the water washed over it.

After a moment, she pulled it out of the water and stared at the marking. _It's getting bigger… _

San absentmindedly ran her fingers through her now short hair. _Could it be because I attacked those men? _San couldn't remember ever before feeling the anger that she had felt upon seeing the massacre. Never before had she actually had a _reason_ to feel it.

"We'll rest here for a while." She said to Yakuul as she sat down on a rock. The elk gave a soft snort, indicating that he had heard her, before continuing to drink from the stream.

San just sat. And thought. She thought of the curse. It seemed to grow whenever she felt anger, or hatred. _Which makes sense. _San realized, propping up her chin on her fist._ It was the hatred and anger of the Boar God that turned him into a Demon._

But she also thought of the massacre. Of the people she had seen mercilessly killed. Of the two men that she had killed, just because she had let her temper get the better of her. _Those men had families. And people that cared about them. Wives. Children. _

San rubbed her eyes, trying to remove the faint burning that she was beginning to feel. She wasn't going to cry. She wasn't. _I'm sorry. _San thought, wishing that she could have a chance to tell the soldiers families in person, instead of just thinking it. _I'm so sorry._

**I hate short chapters. I'm sorry. **

**Jigo's coming up next. Be patient for a little while longer, please?**


End file.
